The Haloze dialect is a Slovene dialect in the Pannonian dialect group

Pannonian dialect group

The Pannonian dialect group , or northeastern dialect group, is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Pannonian dialects are spoken in northeastern Slovenia , and among the Hungarian Slovenes.-Phonological and morphological characteristics:Among other features, this group is...

. It is spoken in the Haloze

Haloze

Haloze is a geographical sub-region of Slovenia. It is in the northeast of the country, in the Lower Styria region.-General characteristics:Haloze is a hilly area, running roughly east-west bounded by the border with Croatia to the south and the Dravinja and Drava rivers to the north...

 Hills south of the line defined by the Dravinja

Dravinja

The Dravinja River is the largest tributary of the Drava River in Slovenia. It is long. Its source is on the Pohorje Massif southwest of Mount Rogla about 1,150 m above sea level. The river passes Zreče, the town of Slovenske Konjice, the ruins of the fort at Zbelovo, Poljčane, Makole, Štatenberg...

 and Drava

Drava

Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe, a tributary of the Danube. It sources in Toblach/Dobbiaco, Italy, and flows east through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria, into Slovenia , and then southeast, passing through Croatia and forming most of the border between Croatia and...

 rivers, extending to the Croatian border, bounded on the west by a line running from southeast of Majšperk

Majšperk

Majšperk is a settlement and a municipality in northeastern Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Lower Styria region. The municipality is now included in the Drava statistical region. It was first mentioned in written documents dating to 1261 in relation to the 13th-century Majšperk...

 to Donačka Gora

Donačka Gora

Donačka Gora is a settlement to the east of the town of Rogatec in eastern Slovenia. It lies to the south of a hill with the same name. The area traditionally belonged to the Styria region and is now included in the Savinja statistical region....

 and the Macelj

Macelj

Macelj is the name of a village and a forest in northern Croatia bordering on Slovenia. There is an official border crossing in Macelj, and the end of the A2 highway.-Macelj in 1945:...

 border crossing. Larger settlements in the dialect area include Žetale

Žetale

Žetale is a village and a municipality in eastern Slovenia, on the border with Croatia. The area traditionally belonged to the region of Styria. It is now included in the Drava statistical region.-History:...

 and Gradišče

Gradišče, Videm

Gradišče is a settlement in the Haloze Hills in the Municipality of Videm in eastern Slovenia, next to the border with Croatia. The area traditionally belonged to the Styria region. It is now included in the Drava statistical region.-External links:*...

.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

The Haloze dialect lacks pitch accent

Pitch accent

Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...

and is characterized by the phonological development of hard ł > o. The adjectival declension of has o instead of standard e (e.g., -oga instead of -ega). The cluster šč is preserved in the dialect and the ending -do is frequent in third-person plural verb forms.